Shooting Highlights Dangers of Distracted Living

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If a murderer pointed a handgun directly at you, you'd notice,
right? A recent incident in San Francisco proves that you might
not — if you're staring at a cellphone.

Nikhom Thephakaysone boarded a crowded Muni train near San
Francisco State University in September, and a security video now
reveals that he repeatedly took out a .45-caliber gun and pointed
it directly at passengers. But even after brandishing the loaded
weapon several times, not one passenger noticed him,
distracted as they were by their cellphones and tablets.

Only after Thephakaysone allegedly shot and killed Justin Valdez,
a 20-year-old college student who was on the train, did the
oblivious passengers take notice. "These people are in very close
proximity with him, and nobody sees this," District Attorney
George Gascón told the
San Francisco Chronicle. "They're just so engrossed, texting
and reading and whatnot. They're completely oblivious of their
surroundings." [ The
10 Most Disruptive Technologies ]

The fatal shooting that occurred in San Francisco — and the way
the alleged killer was repeatedly ignored by dozens of people —
highlights the degree to which people are increasingly absorbed
in cellphones and other devices, to the extent that they're
endangering their own lives and the lives of others.

In 2009, Western Washington University psychology professor Ira
E. Hyman hired a clown to ride a unicycle on the college's
campus. Only 25 percent of pedestrians who were using cellphones
noticed the unicycling clown, according to a study published in
the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, a finding that Hyman
and his colleagues attributed to "inattentional blindness."

And a study published earlier this year found that the rates of
cellphone-related injuries among pedestrians have climbed
rapidly in recent years: More than 1,500 pedestrians were treated
for such injuries in 2010, compared with fewer than 600 injuries
in 2007. "If current trends continue, I wouldn't be surprised if
the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cellphones
doubles again between 2010 and 2015," Jack Nasar, a researcher at
Ohio State University and study co-author, said in a statement.

"What happens to public places when everybody is talking on a
cellphone? Everyone is somewhere else," Nasar told the Chronicle
in response to the San Francisco shooting. "Someone can take a
gun, hold it up, and nobody will notice it."

Police in the San Francisco area find that cellphones are a mixed
blessing to law-enforcement officials. "I'm not going to say we
don't appreciate the cellphone videos that we have gotten on so
many occasions that have helped us solve crimes," San Francisco
Police Chief Greg Suhr told the Chronicle. "But it makes people
so incredibly vulnerable to crime."

Two out of every three robberies in San Francisco involve
cellphones, Suhr said, and the victims often can't provide
information to help police find the culprits because they're too
preoccupied prior to the theft. "When you interview people who
get their phones stolen — when you ask them to describe where the
person came from, what he was wearing — they have no idea," Suhr
said.

Suspect shooter Thephakaysone was arrested shortly after the
killing; he is also being charged with possession of an illegal
assault rifle and for an assault that occurred earlier on the
same day Valdez was shot.